Paying by direct debit

New study shows direct debit payers use 4 to 6% more electricity

An article in Treehugger today made me think. I used to ask people how much their electricity cost and the answer was almost always "I pay by direct debit" which is not the answer to the question and they did not actually know.

The article is about a study of 16 years worth of billing records at an American supply company and showed that residential customers that used automated bill pay consumed 4 to 6 percent more electricity than those who didn`t and that commercial customers used 8 percent more. The most disheartening statistic was that low-income people who had enrolled in an automated budgeting program that helped spread the cost of their electricity use throughout the year, used 7 percent more electricity, meaning they spent even more than they would have if they had stuck with a typical billing program.

American but it probably is the same here. read the full article at http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/automated-electricity-bill-payments-cause-people-consume-more-energy.html 

Added Thursday 30th April 2015